CHAPTER 34
I was drinking coffee and eating donuts and reading the Globe while I sat in my car in the parking lot of the Dunkin' Donuts shop on Market Street in
Allston. Pearl was in the backseat, with her head on my right shoulder, and every once in a while I would give her a piece of donut. I had bought with that in mind, so there were enough. I was studying Cabin Hobbes when Vinnie Morris opened the door on the passenger side and got in.
"I been looking for you," he said.
"You been following me," I said.
Vinnie shrugged.
"Usually they don't make me," he said.
"Usually they're not me," I said. "You alone?" "Yeah."
I didn't double-check him in the rearview mirror. Vinnie would kill you, but he wouldn't lie to you. "Get some coffee," I said. "We'll talk."
Vinnie nodded and opened the car door.
"If you get donuts, get extra. The dog likes them."
Vinnie looked at me without comment for a moment and closed the car door.
By the time he came back, I had finished the comics and folded the paper and put it on the floor in the backseat. He had two cups of coffee and a bag of donuts.
Pearl wagged her tail and nosed at the bag.
"Can you control this fucking hound?" Vinnie said.
"No," I said.
He handed me the bag and I took out a donut and broke it in two and gave
Pearl the smaller half. I took a bite of my half and pried the cover off the fresh coffee. It had been a rainy fall, and it was raining again.
Market Street was a bright wet black. The traffic was sporadic and slow.
And the parking lot at the discount lumberyard across the street was nearly empty except for one guy in an emergency slicker he'd made from a green trash bag, tying a piece of surplus plywood to the roof of a ten-year-old
Subaru wagon.
"I been trying to figure this out," Vinnie said.
Pearl was gazing at the cinnamon donut Vinnie was holding. Her head moved as his hand moved.
"Dog's supposed to get a bite," I said.
"Fuck," Vinnie said, and broke off a small piece and fed it to her gingerly. He wiped his hand on his pants leg.
"I been trying to figure out where I stand in this between you and Gerry and Joe," Vinnie said.
"Un huh."
"Joe figures the only way Gerry's ever going to be a man is to face up to something bad-"
"Which is me," I said.
"Which is you," Vinnie said. He trolled the coffee cup a little to stir it, and had a sip. "To face up to you and to win."
"Except he won't win," I said.
"No," Vinnie said. "He won't. He ain't that kind of man."
"More than one kind," I said.
"Maybe, but Joe don't know that."
"Neither does Gerry," I said.
"No, he don't, and it fucks him up worse than you'd think anything could."
"You think he'll try?" I said.
"Yeah."
Vinnie broke off another small bit of donut and fed Pearl.
"Joe want you to help him?" I said.
"No." Vinnie stared out the window down the nearly empty street at the car wash standing idle, looking better in the rain, like everything seemed to.
"No. It's family. You saw him send me out when he come to talk with you.
Him and Gerry."
"I always kind of figured you were family, Vin. ю me.
Vinnie shrugged. "Well, I ain't. I been with Joe since I was seventeen. I was a jerk kid, but I was willing, you know? Nobody too tough. No alley too dark. Nobody too special for me to kill. I was always willing. I was never scared."
"Always for Joe," I said.
"I never had nobody else."
"So Gerry will come after me without backup?" I said.
Vinnie shook his head. "Joe'll send him out alone," Vinnie said. "I know
Joe. Because he thinks that's the only way the kid can ever be anything but a sleazy little punk. But he knows he's no good, and he don't want something to happen to him. So he'll come too. He'll trail along behind to protect the kid."
"So if he's right, he'll undercut the kid even if I don't kill him."
"Yeah. Joe loves the kid."
"So he'll either get him killed or he'll take away his victory by not letting him do it alone."
"Yeah."
"Kid would be better off if Joe didn't love him."
"Yeah."
We were quiet. The rain sliding down the front windshield made the traffic lights fluid and impressionistic at the intersection.
"The thing is," Vinnie said, "Joe ain't that good anymore.
I nodded and drank some coffee and took another piece of donut and shared it with Pearl.
"He gets involved," Vinnie said, "and you'll clip him -too."
"If I have to," I said.
"I thought about taking you out for him," Vinnie said.
"Which is why you've been following me."
"Yeah."
"But if you do that," I said, "Joe will never forgive you. Because you ruined it for his kid."
"Yeah."
"Easier, wasn't it," I said, "when some guy gave Joe trouble all you had to do was go round and drill him."
Vinnie drank a little more coffee, staring at the rain. He took another donut, and automatically gave Pearl a piece, and ate the rest.
"I'm getting out," Vinnie said. "I'm quitting Joe."
I stared at `iim. I couldn't think of anything to say.
"You do what you gotta do," Vinnie said. "You have to kill them, you have to kill them. I won't come around asking you about it. I'm out of it."
He drank the last of his coffee. He took the final donut out of the bag and looked at it for a moment, then put the whole donut back for Pearl to take.
Which she did. Vinnie opened the door and put one foot out onto the ground.
I put out my hand. Vinnie took it. We shook hands. Then he got out and closed the door. He turned the collar up on his raincoat and walked back to his car and got in. I saw the wipers start. The headlights went on. And he drove away. From the backseat Pearl nosed at my ear. Her breath smelled of donuts.